Thank you for taking the time to read this article on How To Get Your Next Corporate Catering Absolutely Free. Unfortunately, I can not take credit for the concept you are about to learn. By paying attention to what my catering customers were doing, I uncovered the secret of free caterings.
When I first started talking to friends and customers about the concept for this I received the following two comments:
* “A free catering? How can I get my next catering free?”
* “A free catering? Nothing is free in life. What’s the catch?”
I would imagine your initial reaction was the same. I have to admit the thought of a free catering sounds too good to be true. You know the old saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” My parents taught me that growing up, and it’s half true and half false.
How is a free lunch false? Let me tell you to start. Someone is going to have to pay for or write the check for your catering.
Neither I, nor my competition can afford to go around giving away all of our food for free. You’ll see us in bankruptcy court in less than 30 days.
Now read on. I promised to show you how to get your next catering for free, and that’s what I’ll do.
How is a free lunch the truth? I just mentioned someone has to pay for your catering, but it doesn’t have to be you.
Who would pay to feed your employees or cater your next client event. The answer lies in one simple question:
“Who Stands To Benefit From My Company’s Success?”
Your employees? Yes, but you and I wouldn’t dream of asking our employees to pick up the tab.
Your Vendors and Suppliers! That’s right. The more your business grows and prospers, the more products and services you will need to purchase from your vendors and suppliers.
Many companies consider the vendor/supplier relationship adversarial. To remain competitive into the next millenium, you will need to view your suppliers as partners in your business. Let’s take a closer look at this relationship and how it will benefit you.
Why Your Suppliers Will Beg You To Let Them Pay For Your Next Catering
“You help people get what they want, and they’ll help you get what you want!” Repeatedly, I have found this statement to be true. The more I do to help my customers and clients be successful, the more I am rewarded with more business and loyalty.
At Ms. Piggies’ Smokehouse & Catering Company we feed over 43,000 people each year. It would be safe to say this large group, as a whole, is affiliated with just about every company, school, church, non-profit or association in St. Louis County. We are bombarded with up to five requests each day for gift certificates for events ranging from employee appreciation events to silent auctions for schools.
We never say no. Why is this? We know there is an almost 100% chance the request is coming from a current customer. By donating a gift certificate, we are building on the goodwill of our customers. We also count on them to influence others. Adopting this philosophy has allowed us to grow each year.
The same philosophy that drives me to honor the multitude of requests for free gift certificates, will motivate your suppliers to help underwrite the cost of your next event. You just need to position it properly.
Your corporate catering will be held to benefit one of two groups: your customers or your employees.
A customer focused event like a holiday party, a new product launch, a seminar or customer appreciation is the type of event that helps solidify, if not build upon, the goodwill you have established with your customers. This goodwill, if used properly, will lead to more business with your firm.
Needless to say, your vendors directly benefit. The more your sales increase, the more business your supplier receives. A true WIN-WIN situation. Most vendors are more than happy to contribute their fair share to such a worthy event. Just listen to the success of one company.
“We were having an open house for our customers. Kendall, the plan you developed for us to approach our vendors to help pay for your catering was genius. Six suppliers each contributed $500. The $3000 raised covered the cost of the catering and the invitations. All the vendors I approached were excited to help us out and have been rewarded over time with increased business.”
Morty Banks, Banks Industries
You see. If approached properly, your vendors/suppliers will be glad to help you. It’s a selfish motive. They know it will ultimately come back to them in spades.
Why Would My Suppliers Want To Pay To Cater An Employee Event?
Your vendors will be just as eager to help with employee parties and picnics. Let’s examine why treating your employees is beneficial. A recent survey revealed most company managers and owners believed pay (money) was the number one motivator for employees. Employees taking the same survey said “appreciation” was the number one motivator.
Let’s face it. In St. Louis, Missouri with unemployment under 6%, most of your employees can go down the street and make an extra buck an hour or two grand a year.
What you say and do to make your employees feel appreciated has more to do with employee productivity and retention than pay.
Each year we see an increase in the number of meals companies cater in to make their employees feel appreciated. One local hospital invests about $9,000 each month in catering just to make their employees feel appreciated. A simple lunch is one of the easiest and most cost effective means to show your appreciation.
Your vendors understand the value of your employees. The better your employees are treated. The better your customers will be treated. The direct result is increased sales for you and ultimately your supplier.
Pharmaceutical reps are constantly paying to cater in lunches for doctor’s offices and clinics. We handle many such events each week.
One local company, C.U.C. Travel, has all the major car rental companies drooling to bring in lunch for all their employees. I asked one of the car rental reps why they would spend so much money to feed all of their employees. He replied, “When a customer calls in to book a vacation and needs to rent a car, I want every travel agent remembering my company.” You see. Another example of vendor and customer working together to help each other. WIN-WIN. That’s what it’s all about.
Won’t I Be Indebted To My Vendors?
That’s the first question that came to my mind. Researching our catering clients that were successful in having their suppliers pay for their catering, I uncovered two factors that kept them from feeling they owed their vendors.
1. The amount you request from any single vendor should represent a small percentage of what you spend with them each year.
2. Don’t ask your vendors to help out too often.
A $500 request from a supplier that you spend $20,000 a year with is reasonable. Most suppliers won’t think twice about it. If you asked for $2,000, you’ll meet with resistance and made to feel indebted. I’m sure you would help out one of your customers in this situation and not think twice. It makes good business sense.
How Do I Go About Approaching My Suppliers?
Studying and calling our clients that have been successful in having their vendors pick up the tab for their catered events, helped me develop the following 4-Step System.
* Decide Which Vendors To Approach
* Send A Letter of Request
* Make A Follow Up Telephone Call
* Send A Thank You Note
Before you decide which suppliers to approach, you’ll need to make a list of all your suppliers along with the amount of money you spend each year with them. Sort that list from largest vendor to smallest. Now go down your list and write down a realistic dollar figure each supplier should be able to contribute to your catered event without feeling pinched.
With your list complete, you are ready to mail out a letter of request to each vendor. You will be explaining the purpose of the event, how they can expect to benefit and what you would like them to contribute. Remember, you can ask them to write a check, or give you the amount in goods and services.
It doesn’t matter to you. Five hundred dollars worth of printing is just as good to you as a $500 check. The end result is the same. In fact, your vendor might prefer to give you products/services because their hard cost is much less. Their hard cost on $500 worth of merchandise might only be $250. Again, a WIN-WIN situation for everyone.
SAMPLE LETTER
January 10,
Mr. Bob Jones
ABC MFg.
1231 Hawkeye Road
St. Louis, Missouri 63376
Dear Bob:
I want to thank you for being one of our preferred vendors. We have worked together for quite some time, and appreciate the great service we have come to expect from you. The ability for us to consistently deliver high quality products and service our customers is directly related to vendors like you delivering on your end.
You could even say we’re partners of sorts. The success of both of our companies is intertwined.
You’ll agree our being more successful leads to you being more successful. The busier we are the more we turn to you to help service our growth.
We will be holding a customer open house on March 30. This will give us an opportunity to meet face to face with our customers and discuss their needs for the fall.
Events like this have proven very successful in solidifying and building client relationships. Not only are we able to obtain commitments for future business, we are able to talk one to one with clients and uncover areas of improvement for our company.
As a preferred vendor that benefits directly from our growth, I am requesting you help underwrite a part of the investment in our open house. We would appreciate you investing $500 in our open house.
You can feel free to deduct the amount from a future invoice or write us a check. We want to make your participation in this event uncomplicated.
I will call you next week to discuss the details of the open house and answer any questions you may have. Based on previous open houses, I know an investment in this event will benefit both our companies. Thank you in advance for your consideration and support as our partner in growth.
Sincerely,
David Smith
President
Once you have mailed your letters of request, you are ready to follow up by phone. You will want to wait about three to four days after your letter is received to call. You want to incorporate the following into your conversation:
* Did you receive the letter I mailed?
* Do you have any questions?
* Will you be able to help out with the event?
* If not, how about a future event?
* If yes, thank them and go over the details.
* Whatever happens, ALWAYS THANK YOUR SUPPLIER FOR THEIR CONSIDERATION!
Telephoning your supplier will be easier than you think. The letter you mailed gives them notice of your upcoming call. Whether they decide to help or not, they will be prepared to give you an answer when you call.
I had a college professor who taught business correspondence at Purdue University. The one bit of information that still sticks in my mind after ten years is the importance of thank you notes.
He told a story about being invited to a friend’s lake house one summer. As soon as he returned home, he sat down and composed a hand written thank you note. Every year since, he has been invited back.
That story prompted me to start writing notes to thank friends and acquaintances for everything from sailing trips on Lake Michigan to week long ski vacations. Needless to say, I get invited back each year, and I am sure my appreciative note has something to do with it.
Be sure to write each and every vendor that helps underwrite the investment in your next event a thank you note. Besides being the right thing to do, it will be appreciated. You can count on your future requests being cheerfully honored.
How Does Ms. Piggies’ Smokehouse & Catering Company Benefit From Giving You This Information?
The purpose of this report was to share a system that allows you to thank your customers and/or employees without costing you a dime. Our number one goal was to enlighten you to what your fellow businesspeople were doing to maximize their customer and employee relationships. I have always found it easier to study unrelated companies and apply their systems to my industry, rather than copying my competitors. If nothing else, I hope your vision has widened.
I know some people will read this article and dismiss it by saying, “Too much work,” or “It’ll never work for me.” Everyone has to do what makes them feel comfortable, and I respect that. Others of you will embrace this idea, but choose to stick with your current caterer. If this is your choice, I understand. The final group of people, hopefully like you, will try the system and call Ms. Piggies’ Smokehouse to handle the catering of your next event.
Whichever category you fall into, please know our intent is to give you a proven system to help you grow your business.
Exceed Expectations,
Kendall Matthews
Barbecue Apostle ™
P.s. We started by talking about there being no such thing as a free lunch. Guess what. There is. I want to give you a “Get Out Of Work Free Card” for you. If you are considering any type of event, please call our Free Recorded Message 24 hour corporate catering hotline 1.877.727.9246 ext. 302. I would love to have you out to my restaurant to sample some of our barbecued goodies, or I’ll be glad to bring lunch out to you. You’re under no obligation. All I ask is you consider us for your catering needs.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://mspiggiessmokehouse.com/mspiggiessmokehouseblog/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
Comments on this entry are closed.